Friday, June 12, 2009

Over and Out

I figured a good way to end Wedding Week(s) was to post some of my favorite scenery from our Honeymoon in Aruba. It was warm, windy, relaxing and beautiful. I'll be back next week with some actual design and decor, promise!

The downtown harbor.

Dutch design is still seen in the main distinct. So cool, right?

The view of the resorts private beach from our hotel suite.

Seriously.

We rented a jeep and just started driving. It's totally legal to drive a vehicle on any surface there so it was a lot of fun to off road on the beaches and through the rough terrain.

A charming old Dutch mission-style church and school we stumbled upon. I took a look at some of their books, they were from the 1950's!

The highest point on the very flat island.

An old gold smelting mine.

The other side of the island features very strong currents and rocky beaches. We hiked all along the coast and eventually made it to a private beach all our own.

The California Lighthouse is at the very tip of the island and was named after a cruise liner that sank off the island in the early 1920's.

An old tanker bombed in WWII still sits. Apparently there are about a dozen sunken ships within the surrounding waters of Aruba and divers enjoy peeking into the wreckage.

We drove over to the locals side of town, Baby Beach.

A pelican was spooked by our little jeep. I love this photo.

There are lots of abandoned buildings on the island which I thought were really cool. This was an old beach club complete with cricket fields, lockers rooms and a ballroom. Once the oil refineries shut down a lot of wealthy people left the island and things have been sitting ever since.

Some wild parakeets.

Crabs on Baby Beach.

The National Parks are filled with wild goats and donkeys. They are a protected species on the island.

My favorite black swan and hotel resident.

Cactus is thick and imposing. The terrain is dry, rough and rocky.

I was excited to catch a glimpse of these wild donkeys. We took a horse back ride from town to the beach and these guys just wanted to see what we were up to on their side of the island.